We'll be keeping track of the wins, the acceptance speeches, the tears and the Alec Baldwin/Steve Martin repartee. Check back here for more throughout the night!

12:01 a.m.: It's a wrap folks. With the clock ticking, "The Hurt Locker" takes it with zero fanfare. Kathryn Bigelow, however, is double-fisting her Oscars. The producers give an appropriate shout out to the one producer banned from the ceremony, Nicolas Chartier, who you know is at home partying away.

11:55 p.m.: "The time has come ..." Kathryn Bigelow is the first female to win the best director Oscar. The award is dedicated to the men and women in the military, wishing them safe travels back.

11:52 p.m.: Great acceptance speech, including the shout out to Meryl Streep for being such a good kisser. She even made her husband, Jesse James, cry.

11:48 p.m.: Sandra Bullock is both the best and the worst actress in cinema all in one weekend. She got the Razzie last night for "All About Steve" last night - history has been made!

11:46 p.m.: Take a second to let that sink in. Gabourey Sidibe went from unknown actress to competing against Meryl Streep for best actress. Talk about a fairy tale rise, indeed. It must've hit Gabby too - the tears were flowing as soon as Oprah Winfrey started giving her "Gabby's so awesome" speech.

11:43 p.m.: Sandra Bullock admitted that she didn't prepare an acceptance speech for best actress, despite being the clear favorite for the award. What are the odds that none of the other best actress nominees did either?

11:38 p.m.: Jeff Bridges wins best actor to the surprise of absolutely no one.

11:25 p.m.: For the best actor nominees, we get not just two presenters, but one for each and every nominee. Michelle Pfeiffer waxes nostalgic about working with "Crazy Heart's" Jeff Bridges; Vera Farmiga informs us what it's like to be Clooney's love interest (intimidating, but you already knew that); Julianne Moore uses plenty of positive adjectives to talk about Colin Firth; Tim Robbins "remembers when" for Morgan Freeman and Colin Farrell gets a little chocked up for Jeremy Renner. Yeesh. A little indulgent, no?

11:18 p.m.: Is a surprise in store for best picture? It's possible - Argentinian film "The Secret in Their Eyes" took best foreign language, and it seems that no one saw that one coming.

11:10 p.m.: "The Hurt Locker" is doing pretty well tonight, taking four of the nine awards it's nominated for. "Avatar," however, is right behind it with three Oscars. We're getting down to the good stuff, guys - best actor and best actress are coming up!

11:05 p.m.: Tyler Perry, looking dapper as always, gives a little laugh that they just said his name at the Oscars. He jokes, "I better enjoy it because it'll probably never happen again!" Nonsense, Perry, nonsense.

10:51 p.m.: The dance segment was...interesting. And a touch long. If MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew” decided to do an interpretive dance challenge, perhaps that’s what it would look like. Best dance routine award for Oscars 2011, anyone?

10:44 p.m.: CNN.com isn't the only crew chatting about the Oscars. Check out Jack Gray’s Academy Awards live blog for Anderson Cooper’s AC360

10:40 p.m.: James Taylor goes acoustic for a tribute to those in the movie biz who have passed on. Actress Brittany Murphy is among those remembered, which included director Howard Zieff, actors David Carradine and Ron Silver, and Variety journalist Army Archerd. Looks like they may have missed Farrah Fawcett though.

10:33 p.m.: "The Hurt Locker" has picked up a few awards, as has "Precious," while "Avatar" has so far taken the award for Art Direction. But with 10 movies up for best picture, it still doesn't feel safe to call one. How are those Oscar pools coming? Is everyone winning their bets?

10:23 p.m.: When you have an iconic voice as Morgan Freeman does, you don't get to just simply be a nominee and hang out in the audience. You also have to narrate the best sound editing and mixing clip reel.

10:21 p.m.: Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner are the presenters for a tribute to horror, which gives us a montage of some of the best, including "The Shining," "Psycho," "Saw" and ... wait a minute ... "New Moon"? Really?

10:14 p.m.: So far, not a ton of surprises with the Academy's selections. Sarah Jessica Parker and Tom Ford just presented costume designer Sandy Powell with the best costume design award for her work on "The Young Victoria." Powell- considered one of the best in the industry – has won the award two times before, as she pointed out during her acceptance speech.

9:59 p.m.: Mo'Nique takes the award for best supporting actress for "Precious" (surprise, surprise). She says, "I'd like to thank the Academy for showing that it can be about performance and not politics. I'd like to thank Hattie McDaniel for for enduring all that she had to, so that I would not have to," before going on to thank Tyler Perry and her BET and "Precious" families.

To wrap up her speech, Mo'Nique also thanks her husband for "showing that sometimes you have to forego doing what's popular for doing what's right."

9:55 p.m. – Wow Lauren Bacall looks great! She and Roger Corman get a standing ovation after some clips of the Governors Awards are shown.

9:50 p.m.: The nominees for best adapted screenplay are being presented in a pretty cool way. A scene from the film splashes across the screen as presenter Rachel McAdams reads from the script. "Precious" takes it!

9:38 p.m.: Ben Stiller comes out as his "Avatar" alter ego to present the award for best makeup. The irony, as Stiller points out, is that "Avatar" isn't even nominated. Dude even has the tail, which he's just dying to plug into something.

9:37 p.m.: Saldana and Mulligan carried us through all of the short films, including best documentary short and best live action short.

9:29 p.m.: "Avatar" star Zoe Saldana and best actress nominee Carey Mulligan look almost like dress twins as they introduce the nominees for the best animated short film. Clearly floor length gowns that show a little leg in front are in this season.

9:24 p.m.: That John Hughes tribute was an emotional one. Jon Cryer, Anthony Michael Hall, Ringwald, Broderick, Macaulay Culkin, Judd Nelson, and Ally Sheedy took the stage to pay their respects. Hughes' family was in the audience and were visibly moved.

9:17 p.m.: Good tosee Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick together paying tribute to the late director John Hughes.

9:12 p.m.: Tina Fey and Robert Downey Jr. are the presenters for best original screenplay, and the audience is eating it up.

9:05 p.m.: A clip from"District 9" gets played, as it's one of the nominees for best picture - proof that great movies can be made on tiny budgets.

9 p.m.: After a cute bit with the "stars" of the nominees talking about being nominated, "Up" becomes the third straight Pixar movie (after "Wall-E" and "Ratatouille") to win the prize. Pete Docter says "never did I think making a flip book out of my third grade math book would lead to this." Lauds his co-workers, Disney and Pixar for "believing in this oddball film," his family. Very nice.

8:49 p.m.: Christoph Waltz takes the best supporting actor award, and he said director Quentin Tarantino, with his unorthodox methods of direction, brought the movie home with flying colors. He added that he can't ever thank him enough, but he can start right now. On the red carpet, Tarantino said that Waltz was the reason "Inglourious Basterds" was made.

8:40 p.m.: George Clooney looked terrified by what Martin and Baldwin might say about him. Instead, they announced his name and said nothing else about him. Too funny!

8:37p.m.: The duo is having a good time poking fun at "Julie and Julia" best actress nominee Meryl Streep. Alec: When Steve and I met her at the start of "It's Complicated," we both thought the same thing: what a memorable threesome.

8:30 p.m.: We're live with this year's nominees for the best actors and actresses in a leading role. They start with critic favorites Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock before panning to the rest. Is that a hint of who will take home the statues tonight?

soundoff(45 Responses)

Rae

Clooney likens himself to be a psuedo "last" Rat Pack member. He so needs to get over himself. It is like he tries to live out the same suave and cool glamorous life his aunt lived through during the REAL SILVER SCREEN.

He is nothing but an actor that can be replaced by a better actor, probably one that performs DAILY on stage.

Avatar was an amazing work of art and set a new standard for an epic movie. The Hurt Locker was just another OK war movie. Giving the Oscar to an obscure movie and ignoring the overwhelming worldwide public vote on Avatar was a HUGE mistake by the Academy. I was blown away by Avatar, a movie, a decade in the making, started long before the technology had even been created to complete the project. The Academy failed to recognize a game changing work of art. The scramble to honor a woman, any woman, and a quite average war movie made the Oscars a sad nignt for the Academy and a huge disappointment for avid movie goers like myself.

Well, indeed .Sandra Bullock did not "pull-off" a Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich) type of performance in that the same level of intensity was missing in the "Blind Side". I did not think she would win because of that.....However, she's in the versatile comedic/drama actress category as the Great Rosalind Russell...who never won that a Best Actress Oscar although she was nominated MANY times. So, its great that the Academy did not Hold that against her. Historically, following the Traditional status-quo rules of Hollywood, either Meryl Streep or Helen Mirren should have one, just like a Bette Davis Or kathryn Hepburn won in the past. But its refreshing the Historically bad "old-guard" Oscar decisions did not ring true last night.

I'm embarrassed for the contributor on Ali's show that just said that "Kanye moments" (in relation to the Music by Prudence situation,) are what make great TV. That is ridiculous. It is a dangerous signal in our society if rudeness and taking away from other people's accomplishments are entertaining to us. That lady should have been escorted of the stage. She wasn't even a part of the film, only a producer that had ended her participation with the film prior to it being released. Disgusting.

I whooped when Jeff Bridges got it! Wasn't obvious to *me* beforehand (guess I'm not in the know). As for Actresses, I've finally figured out what's up with The Academy and Meryl Streep: If they ever admitted she's 100 times better than everyone else in the game, they might as well shut down that category. So their only choice is to pass her over, year after year after year.

I was happy to see the audience didn't go hysterical when Michael Jackson's name came on the screen.

I like the way the nominees for best actor and actress are introduced. Tim Robbins' anecdote about Freeman not knowing his name was great.

When will winners realize that NO ONE ELSE in the world cares about the names they rattle off in their acceptance speeches. It gets a little better every year but they're still standing up there wasting time and boring all of us to tears. Take your award and SHUT UP!

I've had this questions for years: if actors and actresses can memorize a whole scene's worth of lines, why can't they memorize a paragraph for their presentations? I almost can't watch their stiff, flat teleprompter-enhanced deliveries any longer.

How come Sarah Jessica Parker wasn't paired with her husband Matthew Broderick for a presentation?

Sandra Bullock: Absolutely NO disrespect for her work (and I loved The Blindside) but Meryl Streep was robbed; her portrayal of Julia Child was magnificent and yet a 16th (or 36th or however many films she has made) example of the depth and breadth of her talent. I really can't believe the number of times she's been nominated yet won only twice.

Martin & Baldwin: Lame. Bring back Billy! or someone who can carry a show like the Academy Awards without having to resort to vulgarity. And since when did someone decide Baldwin is a comedian?

Show: I thought it moved right along, too, and glad to see the demise of those ridiculously over-choreographed best song performances. Aside from the extraordinarily poor performance of the emcees, I give it a B+

No, Inglorious Bastards was ROBBED and Quetin Tarentino. They should have taken home, hands down, best original screenplay, best picture and best director. Nobody saw or ever heard of the hurt locker...and that story has been done before ..I do believe David Simon did it for HBO...Its a shame that Quentin was not reconized for his talents because he hasn't disappointed with his work..he can give something original and unique that makes one say "Wow I wish I thought that" and thats Inglorious Bastards...They know that chick didn't deserve it but because they never gave it to a women and they probably thought we won't have this opportunity again anytime soon..so why not..but I would have respected more if Cameron got it...for the direction it took to put that movie together

Once again Hollywood is banking on special effects, children's storybook scripts, comic book storyline, and yes... the infamous wartime movie saga. Year after year, another version of an old story rears its head in the form of version 13 14, 15 etc... It's not surprising to know that few people would be aware of the "Hurt Locker" as a viable movie.

Avatar was not robbed. It was visually stunning and nothing else. As far as the screenplay is concerned, it was nothing more than Pocahontas with aliens. The acting was average at best, which generally means the directing was as well. I would have personally thought "Precious" should win. After seeing both movies, the acting, directing, and dialogue were far superior to Avatar. I can't make any comparisons to the Hurt Locker because I never saw it. Nevertheless, Avatar was not robbed. It was at least second to "Precious".

Great oscar show. It was tight, it moved along great. It came in an 3.5hours, close to a record. Thanks for all the film clips, especially the film clips during the best song. I could have done without the dance number during best score – that was very old school and envidet what was wrong with old school oscasrs. Great job overall thanks.

Avatar was robbed. Great job voters on picking melodramatic and unoriginal performances/scripts over quality filmmaking. James Cameron is a genius and Avatar was so much better/original than anything in years. The amount of skill involved dwarfed all the others. Politically correct Hollywood loves cliche films.

My husband and I turned the TV off after Steve Millers derogatory remark about hors-horses. We all got it....whores....horses. I had wanted to watch for best actor, but
chose not to after that remark. Have spentthe evening in a better, more modern, thoughtful way.

I've been a huge fan of the Oscars since I was a kid. Never missed a thing from the red carpet to the recaps. All I can say about this year's version is this . . . at least David Letterman is no longer responsible for the worst broadcast ever.